J.Lo's world tour to finish on a high

George Palathingal

FOR Jennifer Lopez, it's almost the end of a six-month jaunt across South and North America, Europe, Asia and finally Australia.

For her hard-core Sydney fans, it's the show they have been waiting for since 1999, when everyone found out the Latina entertainer could sing, as well as dance and act. After two concerts at Allphones Arena (on Friday and Saturday) and one more at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre next Tuesday, the artist most famously known as J.Lo will complete her first world tour.

Like many a show by a mainstream pop star, Lopez's is a feast of dance routines, costume changes and high-energy, chart-friendly dance music, even if, according to a review of Tuesday's Rod Laver Arena gig by Fairfax writer Craig Mathieson, it's one that ''isn't as slick as some pop tours'' and ''lacks momentum and a definable peak''.

Not that that will bother either Lopez or, as Mathieson noted of her Melbourne audience, ''her predominantly female fans''.

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The singer has enjoyed a career renaissance since landing a job as a judge on American Idol last year, after a 2003 fall from grace due to tabloid overexposure that led to her keeping a comparatively low profile to start a family. (She has twins, age 4, with estranged husband Marc Anthony.)

Soon after her arrival on Idol, Lopez had the biggest musical hit of her career in On the Floor (digital sales of more than 8 million worldwide), starred in the moderately successful chick flick What to Expect When You're Expecting and is now enjoying all the associated endorsement deals to the point where Forbes Magazine named her this year's most powerful celebrity.

If her world tour has confirmed one thing for her, though, it seems to be the effect she still has on her fans.

''Seeing the audience every single night dance and sing and have a good time, and then to get their feedback on Facebook and Twitter,'' she says. ''Even in the reviews - you know, I know how critics can be … but at the end of the day, they can't say anything all that bad.

''I'm a lucky girl and everybody's enjoying my work out there and that's what it's all about. I'm doing what I love.''